IIOJK’s homeless, destitute people freeze under plastic sheets
Srinagar: As sub-zero temperatures grip the Kashmir Valley, hundreds of homeless and destitute people are spending nights on pavements, bus stands and hospital corridors, wrapped in torn blankets and plastic sheets — a stark indictment of governance in hibernation in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Kashmir currently has no functional homeless shelter, leaving abandoned elderly persons, mentally ill individuals and the urban poor exposed to the harsh winter cold. Officials of the Department of Social Welfare have admitted that despite repeated directions and policy mandates, there is no roadmap for providing shelters to the homeless.
A senior department official confirmed that earlier initiatives to house beggars and provide vocational training had been discontinued long ago and that the proposed facility for the elderly “is not a homeless shelter”. Activists say the admission exposes a grave humanitarian failure.
The Indian Supreme Court has also mandated the creation of winter shelters for the homeless. However, the administration in the occupied territory has failed to operationalize even a single such facility.
Across Srinagar and other towns, homeless persons — many of them abandoned elderly, mentally unstable individuals or the extremely poor — can be seen huddled near closed shops and derelict buildings, lighting small fires from trash to survive the night. Doctors warn that prolonged exposure to freezing temperatures leads to hypothermia, frostbite and untreated respiratory illness, especially among those already suffering from malnutrition or substance dependence.
Legal experts say the absence of shelters is a direct violation of Article 21, which guarantees the right to life and dignity, and point out that the homeless remain invisible in official records, with deaths and illnesses going undocumented.
“This is not just administrative apathy; it is a moral collapse,” said a Srinagar-based social activist who distributes food to the homeless. “People are freezing on pavements while authorities look the other way. Governance has gone into hibernation.”
With the Valley in the grip of the harshest phase of winter, the continued neglect of the homeless underscores what observers describe as the administration’s deep disconnect from ground realities, even as official claims of “good governance” continue to be projected.
